Ouch!

I've only gone and hurt my deltoid muscle at the gym today. I did chest presses with 12kg in each hand, completed my sets, no pain. Then the very next thing I tried to do, I got a pain in my left deltoid and couldn't lift the weight at all. I rested a while and tried again but couldn't do it. And this was not an lift I have ever struggled with. Well not in the last couple of months anyway....

I wanted to cry with frustration! And then I couldn't even get my bag and leave because the changing room had filled up with morbidly obese old women who seemed very happy with their nakedness, and I couldn't get near my locker. That was a situation I wasnt comfortable pushing into the middle of!

So anyway. I'm a bit concerned about losing my lifting skills, presumably I'm going to need to rest this shoulder a bit. Currently it hurts if I lift my arm out to the side or above my head. Should I try to carry on using lighter weights, just to keep things moving? Or rest it entirely for a while? I was planning on lifting things again the day after tomorrow...worth trying it to see or not?

Dumbells are tricky because of the extra range of motion they allow. I hope you have not injured your rotator cuff. A quick google will give you lots of good stretches and mobility exercises for the shoulder.

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RICE for a couple of days and test your range of motion without weight. If you can not get full ROM (range of motion) without weight then DO NOT resume using resistance and consider getting evaluated. If you do have full ROM without pain in a couple days I'd say your fairly safe to resume with a reduced weight, but you may want to choose different exercises than the ones that contributed to the problem for the time being.

Gosh I don't think I dislocated anything, that would surely be much more painful than this! Thanks for the advice, rest it is then. I can move it through the full range, just with some pain. Hopefully it will just be a mild strain!

I feel lost! My arm is still slightly sore at rest, and hurts properly if I try to lift (think bag of groceries, this is how I know!) so I can't go and do my usual workout, which consists mainly of lifting!

So, I can do squats and lunges, I imagine I might be ok with barbell squats. But no pull ups, no chest press, no TRX reverse push ups, no dead lift, no vipr thrusts. I don't kow how to use the machines in the gym, I use free weights so I am utterly cut adrift here! I am frustrated!

My experience with shoulders are it's best to keep slowly moving to keep the range of motion. When I avoided moving them because of pain ROM decreased and the pain persisted. You may need to work with bands for awhile to get the deltoids strength improved. They are a smaller muscle group and very easy to over work and strain. Definitely avoid lifts like upright rows or overhead presses while they are sore. They are a big load on the deltoids.

Sorry I've been gone ages! Work and stuff getting in the way of my forum habit

The pain is at the top of my arm, just below the shoulder joint itself (although there's an ache going down the whole arm now!)! On the outer side.

The next thing I tried to do after the chest presses was an overhead press with a 12kg vipr, it's usually the last thing I do before stretching and going home. I couldn't even do one of them.

I'm keeping moving, my ROM remains good, it's mainly if I pick something up that I feel the direct pain, also if I put my hand on the stair rail as I go upstairs, oddly!

I've been back in the gym and done lower body stuff. I did also try some light weights (4kg) for overhead presses, but couldn't stand more than a couple of reps. I don't know about bands, tell me more!